Humanoid robots vs industrial robots: which is right for your business?

Industrial robots have been the backbone of automated manufacturing for many years now. They weld car bodies, move components, palletise products, assemble parts, pick and place materials and perform thousands of repetitive tasks with extraordinary speed and precision.

With humanoid robots more readily available on the market, will humanoid robots replace industrial robots, or will they both have different applications?

Humanoid and industrial robots have been designed around very different principles. Industrial robots are typically optimised to perform specific tasks with speed, precision and consistency. Humanoids are being developed as more general-purpose machines, capable of moving through human environments and potentially performing a wider variety of tasks.

Understanding the difference is essential for any organisation considering its next investment in robotics, and more importantly, recognising which type of robot is best suited to the particular task you need to automate.

The International Federation of Robotics defines an industrial robot as an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator capable of operating across three or more axes. They include articulated arms, SCARA robots, Cartesian systems, delta robots and other specialised configurations. Their greatest strength is specialisation.

If you have for example, a production line, where the same operation needs to happen thousands of times a day, a purpose-built industrial robot can be exceptionally effective. They can easily perform applications such as welding, painting, pick and place tasks, and precision assembly.

Where traditional industrial robots have a competitive advantage are those environments where speed, repeatability and predictable performance matter more than general-purpose flexibility.

Humanoid robots approach the problem from the opposite direction. So, instead of designing a robot specifically for one task, the objective is to create a machine capable of performing multiple tasks within environments that were originally designed for people.

This is an important change, as our factories, warehouses, offices, hotels and other working environments have been built around the human body. We use stairs, doors, handles, shelves, tools, workbenches and equipment designed for people. So instead of having to redesign an entire environment around the robot, the robot can potentially operate within an environment that already exists!

The International Federation of Robotics identifies this flexibility in human-designed environments as one of the key opportunities for humanoid robots, while also highlighting the need for them to prove reliability, efficiency and productivity at industrial levels.

Give an industrial robot a task, and it will do it very well. Give a humanoid robot a range of tasks and it will learn how to do them.

Choose an industrial robot when:

· You have a highly repetitive task

· The environment is controlled

· The task doesn’t change frequently

· High speed is critical

· Very high precision is required

· The robot will operate continuously

· The production volume justifies dedicated automation

· You can design the workspace around the robot

Consider a humanoid when:

· Tasks vary throughout the day

· The environment is designed for humans

· You need the robot to move between different workstations

· Products or processes change frequently

· You have multiple tasks you potentially want to automate

· Reconfiguring existing automation would be expensive

· Human demonstrations could be used to teach tasks

· You need flexibility rather than maximum speed

· You want a potential pathway towards more general-purpose automation

At Extend Robotics, we have a range of solutions for both industrial and humanoid robots. To find out more please contact us.